3rd Sunday in Advent

A special morning at church this morning. On entering the sanctuary, the visual effect was added to by the addition of poinsettias around the altar, given by members of the congregation in honour or memory of a loved one, and also the candle holders down the aisle. We celebrated the third Sunday in Advent, and the candle of Love was lit, but in addition we welcomed six members into the congregation, always a welcome occasion. As always, we enjoyed beautiful music, and a good message by Pastor David. We also welcomed back Jeff, who plays bass guitar with the Praise Band, who has been missing for a considerable time, recovering from critical heart surgery - he almost died - so it was wonderful to see him back and looking well. Tom, our organist, pianist and cello player, arrived with his cello case on his back, but he wasn’t playing in service, he just brought it in for safety, as immediately afterwards he was on his way to the Aronoff Center in downtown Cincinnati, to play in the orchestra for the Broadway production of Mrs. Doubtfire - such a talented and hard-working guy, who is passionate about music - he also teaches cello! After the service, as you can see in the lower right photo, there was a delicious spread of goodies, celebrating not only the season, but also the new members, before going on to Bible Study, in which we were looking at Mary visiting Elizabeth, and also the Christmas story itself. Even though it is such a well known story which is so very familiar to us, when meeting in a group, and studying the words, some new aspect or thought can come out of it. Our leader Dale is so knowledgeable about the Bible, as are a couple of other members, so we learn a lot and they promote good discussion.
I stayed at home in the afternoon, doing some jobs and in between playing Christmas carols on the piano.
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